Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Whose Space? My Space!

Not wanting to be left out of a hot new trend that all the kids are doing and has been featured on TV, I signed up for an account of my own.

I quickly learned three very important things:

There are a lot of people in the world with too much free time.

Cyberstalking has become a whole lot easier.

I have no friends.

Well, actually, I have two friends. One is Mel, and the other it Tom, the guy who invented MySpace.com. who automatically becomes your friend when you sign up.

Tom seemed nice, but I deleted him to make room for the hordes of JA Fans waiting to sign up to see my pictures and videos and read my MySpace Blog. It doesn't matter that the pictures and videos are already available on my website, or that my MySpace Blog is simply a link to this one. What matters is that there are 77 million people on MySpace, and I want a piece of that.

So I turn to you, my loyal blog readers. Do you want to be my MySpace Friend?

If you already have a MySpace account, visit my page at http://www.myspace.com/jakonrath and become my friend. Possibly even my Best Friend Forever. Then I'll do the same. Won't that be cool?

If you don't have a MySpace account, what the hell are you waiting for? It's free, takes about ten minutes to set up, and puts you in touch with like-minded people in a close, intimate way that doesn't involve actually ever meeting them in person.

This is the future, whether you like it or not. Get with the program, deadbeat, and make some damn friends.

I had an account from December till March or so. I used it to spy on my kids and their friends. :) Found it useless otherwise! Like Michelle, too many creeps wanting dates even tho my profile said "extremely happily married and not looking!" Lot of authors there friending each other. Never ran into any readers.

Okay, who can tell me how to change the email address? I'm finding MySpace creepy also and I realize I shouldn't have used my main email address. which is relatively spam free. As lovely people as I find Melanie and Joe, I may be going for the delete also and stick to blog links.

I have no idea why I'm doing this, except that my editor was really eager for me to do so, citing some author of theirs who had, like, 600 friends or something, and whose book did very well. And they seem to think that My Space had something to do with it.

Personally, I'm skeptical that ANYTHING on the Internet can take the place of a publisher really going all out for a book. Like, you know - spending money & time to make sure readers & booksellers know about it. It seems to me that everyone in publishing is telling us to do these things - blogs, group blogs, mass blogs, Amazon plogs, My Space - because they don't want to take responsibility for books not reaching their audiences, due to the usual lack of marketing/publicity. Or perhaps, because they really don't know what works anymore, are faced with a dwindling readership, and are grasping at straws hoping SOMETHING will work.

But yeah, I'll keep trying it. Although since I'm going to be away from the Internet for a few days, perhaps today wasn't the best day to open the account!

NOBODY except you and Melanie have told me they are my friend,Joe. No invitations from anybody, although Melanie has a friend named Paul who has no photo and when I clicked to him I got a blank page with scary music.

Thanks, Melanie - I changed my email address. I guess I get the publisher's idea, especially if you're writing YA stuff. Ally Carter has a million friends, but she's also cracking her gum on her bio! So maybe it's a target market thing?

MySpace is that place where all the internet pedophilic predators hang out, or at least, the recent ones that have been busted.

Also - I changed my birth year to make myself even younger. It's too bizarre to have my age up there. I'm going to make myself 28 and skinny.

Sorry. I totally agree with Michelle Rowen. I signed on because two young fans/readers encouraged me to do so. All of a sudden weird, sexual ads/come-ons started to appear. Then I noticed the very intimate questions they asked in the profile section. Like Michelle, I got the singles bar vibe. No, thank you. DELETE. Call me un-hip, old-fashined, whatever. My Space isn't for me.

My son (13) has a myspace account. I don't approve, yet I don't see that forbidding it would solve anything. He's a great kid, makes good grades, and hasn't caused us any problems so far.

It's the age we live in, folks.

Our kids are much more sophisticated and knowledgeable of worldy matters than we were at their age. As long as they're level-headed and know to watch for the predators, I think it's okay for them to communicate in their own way.

The key is to openly communicate with your kids and make them aware of the dangers that lurk. That's the best we can do as parents.

I think myspace can be good if it opens channels to parents and their kids to discuss the creeps that live on the fringes of our society.

Our kids are going to sneak and do things we don't know about (didn't we all at that age?). But if we've taught them well, they'll know when to say NO; and, even the kids in the farthest rural areas will be streetwise to the scum.

I'm not saying you should allow your kids to have an account, Joe. That's your decision. The thing is, if they want one they'll probably go behind your back and have it anyway. Just make them aware that the Gingerbread Man is out there, and to avoid him at all costs.

I joined myspace in order to keep up with some university friends... then discovered an ex-boyfriend using a picture of me on his page with a very dubious caption underneath it. (The picture itself isn't dubious, thankfully).

From what I've heard, many My Space users simply collect "friends" - the more friends you collect, the more status you have.

It's all I can do to keep up with my blog, and the few that I read regularly. The last thing I need is one more web place to maintain.

Can someone explain - since I'm a technology idiot - what exactly would be the benefit for people like us to have a MySpace account? Is it just basically an ad for your main blog?

So let's say you collect 500 friends. Are any of those gansta-metal-heads, sexual predators and body piercing enthusiasts actually going to come here and read your main blog? Once they add you to their friends list, are they ever going to look in your direction again?

I'm not being sarcastic or negative - if there is a true benefit, I would like for someone to explain exactly how it works (explain as if you're talking to a third grader please).

If it will somehow bring more traffic to my blog without sucking up too much time, I will sign up in a heartbeat.

You'll be pleased to learn that I've picked my stalkeee, an it's... Tom, the guy who invented MySpace.

After a bit of snoopping, I've discovered that Tom has so many friends, he has automated repsonses for when they contact him. Innocuous stuff like, "I'm chillin', what's up with you?" and "Hey! What's going on?"

Like those old DOS computer counselling programs, which would simply ask you questions based on your last response.

"Interesting. So why do you want to break into my house and sniff all of my underwear?"

Maybe my stalkign will be just the publicity he needs to get this MySpace thing off the ground.

As all of you know, Bouchercon and other mystery cons typically have a Guest of Honor, as well as the Toastmaster, and Fan Guest of Honor.

I think, in the spirit of the 21st century, cons need to bring on the Official Guest Stalker. This lucky person can harass authors, guests, with particular attention paid to the Guest of Honor. It will be perfectly acceptable--even expected--for The Official Guest Stalker to lurk outside the Guest of Honor's hotel room, try to sit next to him or her at all meals, and follow him or her into the bathroom.

Joe,The criminal aspects of MySpace.com could make a great addition to one of your future novels. I know someone in law enforcement that does presentations to schools and parents' groups on the dangers of MySpace and the damage it can do to a young person's future. So, when some posts pictures of you in compromising positions and reveal the TRUE DARK SIDE of JA Konrath, you can just claim you were doing research.

I briefly looked into the MySpace thing, but - as some others have mentioned - it had sort of a dating scene vibe going on. Not my thing. Instead I set up a LiveJournal account (www.livejournal.com). Still has friends lists and all that stuff, but without the "hey, baby, what's your sign" feel to it.

**** Funny story along the Salem's Lot line: Michael Palin was hiking in a remote area, and crossed paths with a couple of middle-aged American women. Both fawned over him for a few minutes, then the groups went their separate ways. Palin heard one whisper to the other, "Wow, that was Eric Idle!"

It's something to keep in mind as you post on MySpace, I guess. If some misfortune befalls you, you would hate to have your last entry reading,"Yeah, so then we TOTALLY kicked it with 17 bongs AND some crystal meth. I got so #@$%ed up I couldn't see! LOLROFLBBQ Good times, yo! My heart feel kinda funny tho, for realz. ps. My mom just want to KILL the party. Don't she know I am all up in the CRUNK and shit? LOLLMAOIBM"

I'm with Joe. Tom made me feel wanted and welcome for that whole 30 minutes before Joe and Melanie added me. You can't BUY that kind of friendship.

A realtor in Arizona just asked to be my friend. He'd like me to use him if I buy a home, or sell a home, or if I just want to buy land, or an apartment building. Brings a tear to my eye to know how selflessly he searched me out, concerned about all my real estate investment needs.

I would join except that I hate crowds (77 million? the thought makes me gasp for air) and it scares me. Its one redeeming quality is that it makes me relieved I don't have children. Parenting is a seriously scary prospect these days. If I were one I think I'd have to become Amish.

Myspace is creepy only if you allow it to be. You have complete control over whom you add as friends and who can add you.

Simply set it up to advertise yourself, your books, and your website/blog, and leave it at that. I had my account for a year before deleting Tom and adding my first friend. And now I add only people I know in person or have a genuine connection with.

If nothing else, it can be good for advertising. I don't see any harm in it unless you go crazy and start adding creepy pervs and stalkers.

Melanie, no one has told me I HAD to have a blog, or a newsletter, or anything. I'm doing the blog, and it's the best hit page of my website. I blog once a week, on Mondays. I'm gearing it to readers (I hope) . . . I'm getting a lot of comments from readers, not on the content but just about liking my books, so I think it's simply another method of contact (like email or message boards).

I know several stories of young women (14-18) with MySpace or similar accounts meeting with people they met on-line and getting killed. My daughters will not have an account. Yes, it's the next generation but there's safer venues on-line.

I have a friend who has a "perfect" son on the surface. Until it was uncovered he had a very, very dark MySpace account where he used extensive profanity, talked about killing people, using drugs, and drinking after school. The kid is 13. Blowing smoke? Maybe. Maybe not.

I don't see any harm in it unless you go crazy and start adding creepy pervs and stalkers.

The problem being (once you discount the clueless -- and probably harmless, albeit irritating -- hornytoads whose opening line is "a/s/l?"), few true pervs and stalkers introduce themselves as such or reveal themselves as such from the git-go. I can't recall any evidence that Ted Bundy got much mileage using the line, "Hi, I'm Ted Bundy and I'm going to kill you."

I made sure my son knows that, on myspace, or anywhere else on the internet, a sixteen year old cheerleader might very well be a hairy sweaty middle-aged ex-con with lots of bad tattoos and a few teeth missing.

Teach your kids. Knowledge is the best defense. Prohibition only spawns rebellion. When you get down to it, you can't control another human being, even if it's your kid. Those who think they can are only fooling themselves.

When I read your original post, I thought... hey why not check it out... so I started the sign up process. Then I clicked on the Terms of Service (yes, I do read those things all the way through) and when I came to this section:

"Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com. By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") on or through the Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com, a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Content from the Services. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Services."

It was that part... "any other materials (collectively, "Content") on or through the Services,"... that stopped me short. It just a little too all emcompassing in my view, so I decided just to pass on MySpace.